WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Sanford didn't disclose many flights on private planes, despite law

Sanford didn't disclose many flights on private planes, despite law

By Logan Smith - email

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -  Governor Mark Sanford took dozens of flights on private planes and didn't report them as donations, which an Associated Press report suggests may violate state law.

The report says the governor took 35 trips on private airplanes that he did not report on campaign or ethics reports.

According to state law, officials must report "anything of value" worth at least $200 "if there is reason to believe the donor would not give the thing of value" if the recipient were not an elected official.

"We continue to believe that the AP is selective in their view of the governor's travel," Sanford spokesman Ben Fox said. "That has been the case, and based on this press account, it looks like this may continue to be the case."

Columbia attorney Karl Bowers, who was asked by the governor to respond to the latest allegations, said there is a "friends and family exception" open to a subjective interpretation of the relationship between the donor and the officeholder.

"With the flights in question the office believed it was operating in full accord with all state laws," Fox said. "In many instances the governor was using private airplanes rather than the state plane as a way of saving taxpayer money. In other instances he simply, but emphatically, disagrees that flights should be classified as something other than what they were - with 'friends and family.' In still others arranged and paid for by an outside campaign committee or another political candidate, his campaign committee believed disclosure requirements would be met by the committee that had procured the flight."

Bowers said of the governor's 400+ trips on private planes there were "maybe six or seven" trips that he said might be subject to the reporting requirement.

But Cathy Hazelwood, general counsel for the state Ethics Commission, told the Associated Press all of the governor's flights on private planes "need to be disclosed somewhere."

"South Carolinians are again asking themselves whether this governor is so arrogant that he thinks the law doesn't apply to him, or so ignorant that he thinks he can get away with breaking any rules that inconvenience him," said state Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler. "Whether Mark Sanford's current problems are caused by his arrogance or ignorance, it's clear that many of South Carolina's problems are caused by his failure to be an effective governor."

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod renewed his call for Sanford's resignation, saying he would personally deliver to Sanford a signed petition demanding the governor step down.

"He has misused his office, misused taxpayer money, and now we learn he has been taking valuable gifts under the table," McLeod said Friday. "It appears he's committed a serious crime. We need a governor who is worried about creating jobs, instead of just worried about keeping his own."

In a separate investigation into flights not related to the AP report, a state Senate probe two weeks ago said Sanford broke the law when he charged taxpayers for more expensive business- and first-class flights.

The state Ethics Commission has promised to investigate the governor's use of taxpayer money for those flights, and it is possible the commission will also look into the allegations made in the AP report.

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• Sanford: political foes see "blood in the water"
• Senate probe: Sanford broke law on state travel